Fabrice Knecht Tango DJ
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These Tangos, Valses, and Milongas were recorded around the same time. Take a look to discover what else this orchestra—or others—may have recorded during the same week or even on the exact same day.
Cafetin is a Tango written by Homero Expósito and composed by Argentino Galván.
“Cafetin” depicts the melancholy of a space where worn men gather, sharing their sorrows over glasses of wine. The “cafetin,” a small cafe, serves as a haven for those burdened by the hardships of life, particularly the emigrants who have ventured far from home across the seas. It encapsulates a narrative of loss, nostalgia, and a longing for a simpler, peaceful life away from the devastations of hunger and war.
The imagery of ships and seas recurrent in “Cafetin” symbolizes the journey and the vast separations that define the emigrant experience. Ships returning “to their homes” contrast with the stationary setting of the cafe, symbolizing the static state of the patrons compared to their past mobile lives across the seas. The repeated stanza, “Por los viejos cafetines / siempre rondan los recuerdos,” suggests memories haunting the old cafes, where each tango beat and waft of tobacco smoke revives a sense of past love and homeland.
The line “en tu vaso de vino / disuelvo el destino” metaphorically captures the idea of erasing one’s fate within a glass of wine, indicating how patrons attempt to forget their sorrows temporarily through alcohol, further emphasizing the cafe as a space of personal solace and collective mourning.
Created in 1947 Argentina, “Cafetin” reflects the social and emotional climate of the era, post World War II, a period marked by significant migration and displacement that influenced Argentine society and tangos particularly. The historic discontent and the longing for a pre-war idyllic life away from devastation are palpable in the lyrics. Reflecting on either the geographical stretch by the Rio Plata or metaphorically on the broader national mood, the Tango connects individual loss to collective nostalgia.
Homero Expósito was a notable Argentine lyricist and poet renowned for his contributions to the Tango genre.